Rio, SAEDNEWS: Opposition parties, trade unions and social movements blame President Jair Bolsonaro for the more than 460,000 COVID-19 deaths in Brazil as the pandemic cases continue to soar, overwhelming medical staff and hospitals.
Tens of thousands of people took to streets in major cities, including Rio de Janeiro, on Saturday to protest what they called Bolsonaro's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Brasilia, protesters made a giant plastic doll of the president and held placards demanding his impeachment.
The protesters called for more vaccines and emergency financial aid. They also demanded more aid to better protect indigenous people and to stop deforestation of the Amazon.
However, the far-right leader has constantly downplayed the pandemic since it started, arguing that the impact of locking down the economy would be more detrimental to the nation than the effects of the coronavirus itself.
Bolsonaro ordered the nation to “stop whining” and get back to work.
The anti-government protests mounted as Bolsonaro faces a Senate inquiry launched to investigate the government’s response to the pandemic and what measures were taken to fight the pandemic, including the production of coronavirus vaccines.
Analysts speculate Bolsonaro will blame the COVID deaths on former health minister Eduardo Pazuello, whom he fired in March.
An estimated 3.5 million people have been killed by the COVID-19 disease that is caused by different variants of the novel coronavirus globally.
The World Health Organization has identified four global “variants of concern,” strains coming from the UK and India, plus those identified in South Africa and Brazil (Source: Press TV).
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